Tic-Tac-Toe redux

In December 1985, the french magazine Science & Vie #819 listed several variants to be played on the standard 3x3 board of Tic-Tac-Toe. 

Here are some:

• Decentra: the first player cannot play at the central square. Does the second player wins by playing himself there?
• Misera or Toe-Tac-Tic: this is the misère variant, the one that makes a 3 in-a-row loses
• Doulima: each player must place one, two or three pieces or either color on a given row or column; the last player to move wins
• Nullita: game is played normally, but one player wins if any 3 in-a-row is made (of either color), while the other player wins otherwise
• Toucha: the first player forced to place a piece touching one of their own on a horizontal or vertical side loses the game.
• Connecta: this is the opposite of Toucha, the first player placing an isolated piece (ie, not connected to any friendly pieces) loses (except for the first turn).

The article has even more variants:

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Another, older, variant of Tic-Tac-Toe is 1943's Tic-Tac-Tics by Henry Lewis which uses a score approach. The game is played on a 5x5 board, where each 3, 4 and 5 in-a-row scores an increasing amount of points:

  

Even with the central placement restriction for the first player, there still might be an advantage to start. One possible approach, simpler than the 'inning' system the rules propose, is to play just two games, where each player starts in one, and sum the two scores to decide the winner.

Bantu

Bantu is a 1955 uncredited game, published by Park Brothers.

Bantu is a race game where players must traverse the following circular board:

 

Each player has four pieces labelled from 1 to 4, which determines each piece's moving range.

Games & Puzzles #68 reviewed the game and its rules:

 

Here's also a review from Games International #4,

 

Check the official rules. 

The game made the cover of Abstract Games Magazine #15.  Check also this blog post about the game.

Atchin

"Atchin, new amusing conquest game" is a game from the Netherlands published in 1874. The name Atchin refers to Aceh, a province in northern Sumatra (in Indonesia). The goal of the game is to protect or conquer the Kraton, the Sultan's palace.

The next rules are my interpretation of the ruleset written in the board (nb: I don't speak Dutch):

• The ten black pieces, the Indonesians, are placed in the red circles with a black dot. The nine blue pieces, the Dutch, are placed in the outer semicircle also marked with black dots.
• Black moves first. Black pieces move to an empty adjacent space over the red lines, while Blue pieces do the same but only across the black lines.
• If any piece (black or blue) lands on a Fort (Benting) it may capture an adjacent enemy piece by jumping (Checkers-like) over it (black pieces over the red lines, blue pieces over the black lines). 
• Black pieces can capture pieces on a Village (Kampong) by jumping over them along the red lines. This rule also applies to the red circles with white dots.
• Black wins by occupying all nine spaces in the inner circle around the Kraton. Blue wins by moving one piece from the inner circle to the interior of the Kraton.

There was a war launched by the Dutch at Aceh in 1873, the First Aceh Expedition, which probably was the event that gave the theme to this wargame.

The rules in Dutch (sorry for any typo):

VERKLARING VAN HET NIEUW VERMAKELIJK VEROVERING-SPEL.

Men bepaalt den prijs voor den inzet en stelt de schijven als volgt: De zwarte of Aschineezen aan weêrszijde der pot of Kraton op de roode cirkels, welke met een zwarte stip zijn geteekend, de blauwe of Nederlanders op de onderste halve cirkel waar de cirkeltjes met een zwarte stip zijn aangeduid. De zwarte speelt het eerst en zorgt dat hij het halfrond om de pot of Kraton bezet krijgt, en mag daarom in alle richtingen zetten, terwijl de blauwe alleen de zwarte lijnen volgen moet. Wanneer de blauwe of zwarte op een Benting of Fort staat. moet hij de nevenstaande van zijn tegenpartij slaan: doch de zwarte alleen in de richting der roode lijnen en de blauwe in de richting der zwarte lijnen*. Terwijl allen de zwarte naast een Kampong of Dorp staande, daarover heen mag springen in de richting der roode lijnen, doch alleen wanneer zij onbezet zijn; dit geldt ook voor de vijf roode cirkels met witte stip in het bovenste halfrond. Wanneer er slechts één blauwe in den pot of Kraton komt, dan heeft hij het spel gewonnen. Terwijl dezen het verloren heeft, als de zwarten de negen punten om den Kraton voor de toegang der blaauwen hebben afgesloten.

* Het slaan geschiedt even als bij het damspel.

Gimel

Gimel is a 1980 game by Manuel A. Widmaier, published at Bütehorn Spiele, and later at Hexagames.

It is played on a 8x18 board -- I suppose a shape emulating Senet's -- and each player has 24 pieces between three types:

• Eight scarabs or beetles (represented as disks) that move like chess Kings
• Eight bastets, i.e, the cat gods (as pyramids) that move as chess Knights or as a single 2-step orthogonally
• Eight horus pieces (as cylinders) each moving to any place on the perimeter of a 3x3 square centered in the moving piece (see picture below)

Initially the board is empty. On his turn, each player might do one of the following actions:

• Drop a friendly piece (still in reserve) on an empty square
• Move a friendly piece (already on board) to an empty square
• Capture an enemy piece by replacement
  

The goal is to score points by capturing enemy pieces: scarabs value 1 point, bastets 3 points, and each Horus values 6 points. If players have the same score, win the one with more pieces captured.

The game mixes the typical two phases of dropping the army, then moving. This can make it hard to plan ahead, since any new piece can appear at any place, anytime. Shogi has this mechanism but is much more controlled, because usually there are few pieces in reserve to drop, and they are achieved afterwards, as captures in the middle of the game. Not with Gimel!

Here's a positive review on Jeux et Strategie #2:

The review on Games & Puzzles #78 is less enthusiastic:

Pencil and paper games: Blocking

Another theme is pencil and paper games is blocking, i.e., as the game advances, less and less squares are available, until the stalemated player loses the game.

A well-known example is 1970's Snort by Simon Norton, aka Cats & Dogs. 

The rules: on an 8x8 grid, players take turns marking an empty square, provided that the square is not orthogonally adjacent to an adversary mark. The first player unable to move, loses the game.

To prevent mirror strategies, in the beginning the first player should play in the central 2x2 area, and the second player must play outside that area.

There's also a faster variant, called Obstruction, that includes diagonal adjacencies as illegal moves.

Slimetrail, designed by Bill Taylor in 1993, is also a pencil and paper game with a blocking theme. To recap, in Slimetrail each player has a home, each one staying in opposite corners. The snail mark starts at the middle of the board. Each player, on his turn, shades the snail mark, and places/marks the snail on an adjacent empty square. Wins the player that moves the snail into his home or stalemates the adversary.

Domineering (aka Stop-Gate, Crosscram) is another example. Designed by John Conway in 1976, the game is also played on a square grid, where each player marks two adjacent empty squares with a domino. One player marks vertical dominoes, while the other player marks horizontal dominoes. The first player to be stalemated loses (i.e., the last player to move wins).

Cram is a variant where both players can mark dominoes horizontally or vertically. It is what's called an impartial game in Combinatorial Game Theory. This means that Cram is just the game of Nim with other clothes (I mean, rules).

Chomp is another example. The game is played on a rectangular grid. Each player on his turn selects an empty square, and shades all squares that form a rectangle between itself and the grid's bottom-right corner. The player that moves last loses the game.

Blue lost the match after move 11

Another example comes from JeuMok Plus. There are 24 shared 1x2x4 blocks. The game comes with a rulebook containing five different games (one is a NIM game, another is a Jenga), where the main game rules that players drop blocks in empty squares on a board, and each tile must be adjacent to at least another already on board. The board center cannot be used. The player that moves last wins the game.